With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

27th December 2004
21:14 GMT -5

"Hey, you're not dead!"

Eliza Harmon smiles up at me, vibrating faintly. She's learned to build up speed and apparently remain at normal speed, to anyone who isn't specifically looking for it at least.

I smile back.

"Hey, neither are you! Brave, still wearing the Flash's ccccccoooooollllll-"

For a fraction of a second she frowns, and the rate at which she's vibrating slows.

"-lloooooouuuuurrrrrssssss."

"Ttttthhhhaaaatttt-."

I lean down quickly. "Hah! Got you."

She suddenly stops vibrating. "You-? Ah, damn it! I didn't-"

I reach behind my back and start removing the 'kick me' signs.

She smirks. "-get you to go through the portal with those on."

I look a-. "'Nuke me'? Really?"

"How'd you spot those?"

I point over to the other side of the embarkation area, where Batson is covering his mouth with both hands and is heroically failing at stopping himself laughing.

"Bi-lly! You gave me away!"

"Hahhah! That's great!"

"Look." I take a heavy breath, closing my eyes for a moment. "I decided to contain that nuclear blast in order to prevent the rest of you getting incinerated. 'Kick me' signs are fine, but if you want to joke about the nuke, maybe I'll decide to just shield myself next time and let the rest of you handle the blast yourselves."

"Yeah-. Ah-. No, don't do that."

"Thought not."

"I didn't realise.. you did it intentionally."

I frown. "Why the heck would I intentionally trap myself in a shield bubble with a suitcase nuke and a killer robot?"

"I dunno." She shrugs. "People make stupid decisions under pressure."

"No, the stupid bit happened a moment later when I got angry enough to shut down my construct armour and started evaporating. The decision to protect you was deliberate."

"Okay but, um, why?"

I lean down and condescendingly pat her on the left cheek with my right hand. "Because you're just so adorably helpless and pathetic. Like a little puppy. With one leg."

Batson's face falls, and I roll my eyes.

"It's not a real puppy, Batson."

"No, but it's a total mood-killer. And." He looks awkwardly away for a moment, then straightens up and looks me full-on. "Thank you for stopping us getting nuked."

"You're welcome. You I'll happily shield again, though I would suggest that we all strive to avoid situations where that's necessary."

Batson smiles at me, then looks pointedly at Ms Harmon. She looks puzzled for a moment, then she gets it. "Aoh-! He was trying to conquer America!"

"And that would have been a whole lot easier if he'd let us die. He didn't. Not everyone we fight is a total monster, and we should always be encouraging them to listen to the better angels of their nature. And one of the ways to do that is thanking them when they do something good." He gestures to me with his right hand.

"…" She rolls her eyes slightly. "…t-hanks."

"Ah, and I thought I was going to get to watch a puppy getting nuked today. Good puppy."

I pat her on the head, but my heart's not in it. I sniff, quietly, as she turns and walks away. I did a good job picking those two.

The door to the embarkation room opens, and the rest of Stormwatch walk through. Richard, Rayner, Zatanna and 'Katar'. No, no, Katar, he's had it legally changed. It's not like the original Katar Hol whose memories he copied had a unique name or anything. Heck, if one thanagarian chose to model themselves after another back on Thanagar 16 it would be considered a profoundly respectful gesture. Not so much if an alien did it…

"Alright, everyone. We've got a plan."

Richard glances at Rayner, who generates a film projector construct which shines a.. full colour image of the city of Enndupar. Back on Thanagar 16 that.. was the centre of Thanagar's entertainment industry. It technically still is, though government censorship is increasingly encouraging creative types to work from the colonies. Here? I'd guess that it was the same before my alter-ego took over.

Now? Pass. Apokolips doesn't really have an entertainment industry, and I've never bothered to find out if the gordanians do.

"This is Enndupar, which is the last known location of Mister Miracle and Big Barda. Scans-" Various markers get added to it. "-show this is where-" He glances at me. "-the other Grayven has stationed troops. Enndupar isn't a high priority target like Thandalar so there aren't all that many."

Katar's jaw clenches, and he shakes his head. "Because there don't need to be."

Rayner creates a second projector, showing ooooooh. That's a big ship. And that's a big ship. And that's a really big ship. My alter ego appears to have been doing a lot of rationalising with the gordanian fleet doctrine. Several gordanian battleships-? No, command carriers, are in orbit around Thanagar, showing the signs of having been augmented with Apokoliptian technology openly on their hulls. Around them are their escort assault ships as well as dozens of flights of attack craft: fighters and gunships.

And sitting in pride of place directly over the capital is… Hm, it's actually slightly smaller in terms of volume than the gordanian battleships, though I'm sure that its mass is far higher. An actual Apokoliptian battleship. Grey hull, tron lines everywhere and… A prow-mounted hyperblaster. An honest-to-the-Source faster than light weapon. How did he even get-?

"Grayven?"

"That's an Apokoliptian battleship. It's probably about as deadly as the rest of his fleet put together. And it will have a fleet-scale boom tube generator." Um. "Not saying that it's a priority or anything-"

Richard shakes his head exactly once. "We're not helping you steal the ship."

"-but it would make our lives a lot easier if we took control of that ship. It's almost certainly where the other Grayven is, and being Apokoliptian he's not going to have a captured New God held too far away from him. And he'll be using its systems to project his divine essence-"

Eliza grins. "That sounds dirty."

"-across his entire fleet-"

She grins more. "That sounds dirtier."

"-to ensure that all of those beneath him please him in performing their duties with the utmost vigour and enthusiasm."

Eliza raises her hands.

Richard looks at me. "And you're sure that's where they are?"

"No. I'd say… Forty percent chance? If it were me, I'd dump him somewhere with a boom tube blocker so he'd be stuck there. My own ship where I'd have to personally aura-suppress him would be a distant second as far as preferred options go. But I like him and this Grayven doesn't. There are also things he could use him for that would help him hold Thanagar, and those would require close proximity."

"And he couldn't do those somewhere else?"

I shrug. "Sure. Anywhere where he's in complete control, surrounded by tonnes of Apokoliptian technology and close to Thanagar. So unless he's really rushed construction of a facility on the ground… No, if that's what he's doing."

Richard nods. "Okay then. Here's what we're going to do."